.Chapter 12 Behind the Scenes

How much role did Imai Tsukumura play in the military alliance between Japan and India? It can be seen from the related affairs he led and participated in.

In 2020, shortly after the end of the East China Sea War, Imai Tatsumura visited India as the commander of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

This time, Imai Tomomura first mentioned that Japanese shipbuilding companies helped India build large aircraft carriers. In exchange, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force sent officers and soldiers to India to learn, master the control and use skills of aircraft carriers, and train carrier-based fighter pilots.

For India, it is definitely a very good deal.

If Japan wants to build an aircraft carrier, it can go to the United States to learn from the teachings, or obtain technical support from the United States, so India can benefit indirectly. To train aircraft carrier officers and soldiers and carrier-based fighter pilots, Japan can also cooperate with the United States, and there is no need to cooperate with India.

To put it bluntly, this is a generous gift to the door, and India has no reason not to accept it.

The following year, the Japanese Navy was officially established, and Imai Tatsumura became the commander of the naval force, visited India again, and signed the first agreement of intention with the Indian authorities.

Although the cooperation that has been brought forward is mainly undertaken by shipbuilding companies, Imai Tatsumura still plays an important role.

Don’t forget that Imai Tatsumura’s wife comes from the Iwasaki family, and his relationship with the Mitsubishi Consortium, which controls Japan’s largest shipyard.

In 2022, India signed a formal contract with Japan to build an aircraft carrier in India with technical support.

Although the final result was different from the expectations of Imai Taemura, according to his idea, India's first large aircraft carrier will be built in Japan, and it will be the sister ship of the Akagi, and then the second one will be built in India to replace the "Vicramadia" with serious tactical performance and the "Vicrand" with very poor tactical indicators. However, this result still satisfies Imai Taemura, and also allows the Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard, which participates in the construction work, making a fortune, reducing the cost of the "Akagi".

You should know that when the Japanese Ministry of Defense canceled the construction plan for the "Akagi" class 2 ship, Kobe Shipyard had already placed orders for some equipment to downstream manufacturers, and the hull steel had been produced 3,500 tons. If the order was cancelled, Kobe Shipyard would either pay the breach of contract compensation alone or sue the Ministry of Defense. By helping India build aircraft carriers, not only did this problem be solved, but also provided more orders for downstream manufacturers.

The "Verat" can be launched after four years of construction and completed installation in mid-2027. This is not unrelated to this.

In the outside world, the "Verat" is the second ship of the "Akagi" class. Eighty percent of the equipment and materials are provided by Japan, and they are only assembled in India.

As for how much experience Indian shipyards have learned from it, they are probably not so ideal.

Compared with the Akagi, the biggest difference between the Virat lies in the take-off method. Because the United States refuses to sell electromagnetic catapults to India and has not approved the F35c export contract, the Virat can only use the leap deck and domestic LCA carrier-based fighter jets.

The United States refuses to sell electromagnetic catapults and F35c fighters, not because it is afraid of technical leaks, but because it hopes to use this opportunity to sell F35b fighters to India so that the F35b production line can operate until 2032, otherwise it will be closed in 2029. The reason why the United States promotes F35b instead of F35c is also very simple. The naval orders for F35c exceeded 800, exceeding the breakeven point, while the total production of F35b is only 450, which is still 150 away from the breakeven point.

Without an electromagnetic catapult, even if India can obtain the f35c and take off in a leap, because it cannot be equipped with a fixed-wing early warning aircraft, the combat effectiveness of the "Verat" is far inferior to the "Akagi". In essence, it is at the same level as the "Vikramadia".

While helping India build aircraft carriers, Japanese companies led by Mitsubishi consortium also focused on India's resources.

Especially rare earth resources.

Although India does not have many rare earth resources to be discovered, in terms of geological formation, there must be large rare earth mines that have not been discovered in India, and they are most likely to appear in two places, one is the Deccan Plateau in the central part of the Indian Peninsula, and the other is the Kashmir region in northern India.

In a few years, Japanese companies have gained something on the Deccan Plateau.

However, the reserves of the shallow rare earth ore found are not very large, and the main ones are Dujushi ore. What Japan needs most are fluorocarbon cerium ore and xenodium ore. Although there are more large rare earth ore in the deeper strata, it is very difficult to mine and has no industrial value.

As a result, Japanese companies have increased their exploration efforts in the Kashmir Indian Control Zone.

This aroused the India-Pakistan conflict.

The major discovery of the Siachen Glacier is just the tip of the iceberg, or it only makes the conflict between India and Pakistan in the resource field exceed the critical point of the outbreak.

The India-Pakistan confrontation is bound to be China.

Not only did Imai Tatsumura not worry about this, but also believed that this was an opportunity to eliminate the Chinese navy.

As long as China is involved in the India-Pakistan conflict, it will send a fleet to the Indian Ocean and let the fleet fight far away from its homeland.

Although the Chinese navy has increased its strength greatly, with a large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and two medium-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, second only to the US Navy worldwide, if it wants to win a large-scale war, three aircraft carriers are definitely not enough. More than 20 years ago, in order to deal with small countries like Iraq, the United States used six aircraft carriers. As long as the Indian Navy is backing its back and making full use of the shore-based aviation troops deployed on its own, it can defeat the Chinese Navy.

In the eyes of Imai Tatsumura, this is definitely a good opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

In 2026, Imai Rimura took advantage of the opportunity of launching the "Verat" to go to India again, and on behalf of the Japanese authorities, he proposed a military alliance to India for the first time.

Three months later, Toshio Nakajima signed a secret alliance treaty with the Indian Prime Minister in New Delhi.

According to the agreement, when China initiates a war, Japan is obliged to send troops to assist India in the war, or open up a second battlefield in the East China Sea.

It seems that this alliance treaty is basically of no benefit to India.

In the short term, China has no reason to launch a war against India. Even if China and India go to war, it is likely to be based on the outbreak of war between India and Pakistan. China is just sending troops to aid Pakistan. In this way, Japan will not have to fulfill its obligations and India will not get any benefits.

There are two main reasons why India signed this treaty.

First, China has secretly formed an alliance with Pakistan and signed a military alliance treaty, and promised to send troops to support Pakistan or open up a second battlefield when Pakistan is invaded. Second, Japan promises to help India establish a complete military industrial system within the next twenty years.

The first factor means that China's intervention in the India-Pakistan conflict has become inevitable. Although India has no reason or motivation to go to war with Pakistan for the time being, after forming an alliance with China, Pakistan's military ambitions will expand rapidly, so India needs a reliable ally. The second factor is more tempting, because India cannot rely on imports to complete military modernization. If it wants to surpass China, it must establish its own military industry. The only ones that can help India are the United States and Japan, and the United States will definitely not do such a thing.

In the view of Imai Tsukimura, the content of the alliance treaty is not important, the key is to attract an ally.

In early 2027, when attending the completion ceremony of the Virat, Imai Rimura promised the commander of the Indian Navy that the promise of the Japan-Indian alliance was not only targeted at India's attack, but also included the wars involved in India. As long as China sends troops, Japan will send troops.

In order to express sincerity, Imai Tomomura proposed to conduct joint exercises after the "Verat" completed the naval acceptance.

Although Imai Tsukimura's actions exceeded the scope of the naval commander's authority, Toshio Nakajima did not blame him, but instead approved the joint exercise plan.

It was from this time that Japan and India began to conspire to plan to fight the Chinese navy.

Toshio Nakajima lets Imai Rimura not knowing the risks he took, but he must do so, because the resources of the Siachen Glacier have been the fuse of the India-Pakistan war. More importantly, it is not India that needs rare earth resources, but Japan. If Japan is timid, India will definitely compromise with Pakistan under the huge military pressure of China and accept a more favorable resource allocation plan for Pakistan. As long as the resource allocation plan is implemented, Japan will have no reason to encourage India to start a war with Pakistan for resources.

To put it seriously, Japan will lose the largest rare earth mine discovered in recent years.

Strategically, Japan will never bear such huge losses.

Regardless of whether a rare earth mine of similar scale can be discovered in the future, in about ten years, all high-tech industries in Japan will go bankrupt due to the lack of rare earth resources.

Only by seizing this resource can Japan continue to develop.

As the Prime Minister of Japan, Toshio Nakajima does not want to be a national sinner. Without any other choice, achieving his goal through a small-scale war is the best choice.

Of course, in Toshio Nakajima's eyes, this is just a small-scale war.

To this end, when mobilizing troops, Toshio Nakajima was much more cautious than Imai Tsukumi, and only approved the Navy's "Akagi" aircraft carrier battle group and an Air Force's F22j wing to India, without dispatching ground troops, nor intending to be involved in the ground war in Kashmir.

Imai Tatsumura didn't care whether to use ground troops. In his opinion, as long as he could defeat the Chinese navy, he could force China to give up military adventures. Without the support provided by China, Pakistan could not defeat India at all, and could at most defend several major strategic lines of defense.

More importantly, through this war, the advantages of the Chinese navy can be eliminated, and Japan will regain the control of the sea power in the Western Pacific.

There are so many benefits, there is no reason not to respond actively.

However, what happened next exceeded Imai Tatsumura's expectations...

Chapter 12: The pusher behind the scenes is [

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Chapter completed!